NSIBAMBI GOES BAREKNUCLES, TELLS PRO-MUGISHA MUNTU LEGISLATORS TO ‘MOVE ON’

People who adequately know city lawyer Yusuf Nsibambi will agree he is naturally a calm person who is clearly incapable of confrontation notwithstanding his renowned approval for Dr. Kizza Besigye’s defiance politics that many construe to imply violent confrontation with the State. But during a radio talk show this Saturday morning, Nsibambi for once went bare knuckles and his gloves clearly went off. An FDC founding member, Nsibambi was discussing the latest chaos in his political party and had no kind words for those he considers to be deliberately responsible for creating a storm at Najjanankumbi.  

UNDRESSES MUNTU GROUP;

Renowned for his support for Kizza Besigye, Nsibambi went straight into discussing the various individuals working to undermine Patrick Oboi Amuriat (POA) whom he said is the person he supported in the FDC elections last year when Gen Mugisha Muntu was voted out. “I was for POA and we had a meeting of the elders where I suggested that all of us senior leaders should remain neutral and shouldn’t show sides to preserve ourselves to reconcile the factions after elections. I was vigorously opposed by people like Winnie Kizza, Alice Alaso and others. Many MPs selfishly supported this because they thought their public declaration would swing voters against Amuriat. All these were for Gen Muntu. We had elections which brought in Amuriat and it was free and fair. None of them can say it was rigged. If they are democrats why have they been undermining Amuriat? You say FDC is your party; they call meetings you don’t attend. You stop the monthly contribution of Shs500,000 well knowing it’s all the party survives on. You shun all party activities or actively counter-mobilize and the party president keeps quiet. When there are by-elections, you don’t only shun the party candidates but you also actively de-campaign them. You say we don’t want him [Amuriat] because of the defiance against government yet you are busy deploying defiance against the party you claim to belong to. When there is defiance against Museveni, you decampaign it yet you are doing the same to your party leader. Tell me Med [the moderator] which party or organization tolerates that?” an unusually very combative Nsibambi rhetorically argued. He was speaking on CBS’ Parliament Yaffe program where he is a panelist along with others like Dr.  Abed Bwanika, JEEMA’s Imam Kasozi, NRM’s Vincent Sempijja, DP’s Joseph Sewungu, NRM’s Kasule Sebunya and NRM’s Mike Sebalu. “They [MPs] keep misleading people that it’s them who made FDC. Take it from me Med as a founder member of this party since Reform Agenda days; there is no such a thing. Even when we take Kasese as an example. It’s not true that any of those MPs made FDC great in Kasese. It’s the party that made them who they are. How do you make a party great? It’s by promoting its programs and mobilizing support for it or through fundraising. They have been sabotaging the party president and none of them has ever fundraised even Shs100m for the FDC causes. The other day an MP called Centenary was out there talking for the  Shs1bn from government for activities in Kasese district. The people who have ever fundraised serious money; Shs100m plus; are the likes of Hon Anita Among, Jack Sabiiti and others but not any of those people now working to destroy the party.”

Nsibambi said actually Amuriat has been too patient and some of the party MPs unfortunately misconstrued his tolerance for a weakness. “As soon as he was elected, they called a very big media event at Hotel Africana and denounced him yet he allowed them to continue occupying those positions. He is also a human being with feelings. His patience was stretched too far. They tested him and he has now acted and they are crying foul. If the man is for defiance, and this was clearly endorsed by delegates who elected him, why do you protest when he drops you and puts up his own team that can champion his agenda?” Nsibambi, who is vying for Mawokota South MP Seat on the FDC ticket, said unfortunately many of the MPs both in NRM and FDC take Parliament to be a job as they are simply unemployable elsewhere. “If they are principled as they claim that they are tired of FDC, let them quit even today and they seek a new mandate on that new party ticket. You can’t say FDC is bad yet you want to keep in Parliament on its ticket. I have been in these things and I can tell you it’s not easy to start a party. But it’s their right and for us as FDC we have no problem with that. Let them move on and very good if that 3^rd force of theirs removes Museveni because that’s what we all want to see,” Nsibambi said. He added it takes a lot of commitment “and not the opportunism I’m seeing to successfully found a party.” Nsibambi said the conspiracy against the person of Besigye, who some of the MPs have been attacking, started long time ago. “In 2006 we prepared to nominate Dr. Besigye as our Presidential candidate. He then got arrested in Luzira and in one of the meetings, a group of people led by Miria Matembe, Richard Kaijuka and others said let’s nominate Gen Muntu. We said that would be unethical because people gave us their signatures for candidate Besigye and not Gen Muntu. The next day someone brought a lot of money, only new notes and said let’s go and get new signatures for Gen. Muntu. It was Dr. Suleiman Kiggundu who stood firm and we asked them where is this money coming from? Instead of accounting to us the source of the money, some people protested and abandoned FDC yet they had been active in its formation,” a usually much reserved Nsibambi disclosed. He said the FDC he knows will overcome the current storm and emerge even stronger. He said he was encouraged by Aruu County MP Odonga Otto’s gesture whom he met recently and privately chatted with him. “Dr. Bwanika told us here sometime back that Otto told him at the Makerere DP reunion event that he was leaving FDC but I met him the other day and he told me that is not true. He assured me in his area it’s difficult to win without FDC and he said now that Hon. Betty Aol is the new LoP, the FDC has germinated once again in Acholi,” Nsibambi asserted. He said he won’t be afraid of telling the Muntu group the bitter truth because it’s the attribute Mawokota South voters are considering to make him their MP come 2021. He said as a founder member, he can’t just look on when the FDC party, for which some have lost life, is being misrepresented. He also defended Besigye against claims that he is making a lot of money from opposition politics. “I don’t want to waste time discussing whether that is true or not. If he is getting money from opposition work, so be it. Besigye works hard and everybody else is free to sacrifice, work hard and get the money unless they say he has stopped them from getting the money.” Nsibambi said, unlike the MPs and other officials remunerated on the public pulse, Besigye is a private citizen not getting money anywhere from government “unlike them who must account for the public funds.”